Singaporean · Quick Meals

Kaya Toast

Charcoal-toasted white bread with a slab of cold butter and coconut-pandan jam, eaten with soft-boiled eggs seasoned with dark soy and white pepper.

18 min total Serves 2 servings Easy
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Kaya Toast

Photograph credit: Kaya toast dip into soft boiled egg by Pinklily08 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence

How to Cook Kaya Toast

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  1. Bring a small pan of water to a rolling boil.

  2. Lower the eggs in and cook exactly 6 minutes 30 seconds for a runny yolk, then run them under cold water for 30 seconds to stop them.

  3. Toast the bread until well coloured and crisp at the edges — pale toast goes soggy under the jam.

  4. Spread each slice thickly with kaya while hot.

  5. Lay slabs of cold butter over two of the slices and close them into sandwiches. Do not spread the butter.

  6. Crack the eggs into shallow bowls, add the dark soy and a heavy grind of white pepper.

  7. Cut the toast into fingers and eat by dipping them into the egg.

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Keep an Eye on These

  1. Cold butter, cut into slabs. Softened and spread it melts into the bread and the contrast is gone.
  2. Six and a half minutes, timed. Seven gives a jammy yolk that will not coat the toast.
  3. White pepper, not black. It is a different flavour and it is the one this dish is built on.

The Short Version

The butter must be cold and thick, cut rather than spread — the whole point is that it stays solid against the hot toast and turns to cream in the mouth. The eggs are the other half: six and a half minutes gives a set white and a yolk that still runs, and they are seasoned with dark soy and white pepper rather than salt, which is what makes them taste Singaporean rather than merely soft.

What to Serve It With

Kopi, the local coffee with condensed milk · Teh tarik · Eaten standing at a hawker counter

Keeping Kaya Toast

Assemble to order — kaya toast is a five-minute dish and does not keep. Kaya itself refrigerates 2 weeks in a jar.

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

640Calories
19gProtein
60gCarbs
36gFat
2gFibre
23gSugar
940mgSodium

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .